How to Install and Start Quicken 2014

You install Quicken the same way that you install any program in Windows. If you already know how to install programs, you probably don’t need any help. If you need help installing Quicken, here are the step-by-step instructions.

Starting the Quicken 2014 setup process

Installing Quicken from a CD is easy:

Insert the CD into the CD-ROM drive.

In a short amount of time, Quicken should display the Quicken 2014 Install wizard window. The window just reads "Welcome to Quicken 2014!"

Note: If nothing happens when you put the CD into the CD-ROM drive, don’t panic! First, try removing the CD and then putting it in again. If Windows still doesn’t recognize the CD, you need to tell Windows that it should install your Quicken program. In many versions of Windows (but not necessarily your version), you do this with the Windows Control Panel by using the Programs tool.

You can answer the Install wizard’s questions by selecting the check boxes in front of the questions.

Click Next.

Quicken displays the next window of the Install wizard, which asks where you want to install Quicken. You should accept the program’s suggestion — a Quicken subfolder in your Program Files folder.

Click Next.

Quicken displays yet another window of the Install wizard, indicating that the wizard needs to install the Quicken software and may need to update the software, too. Assuming you’re okay with all this — and you should be — click the Install button.

Quicken installs itself. This process takes a few minutes. Along the way, you may see other screenfuls of messages, including marketing information about the features new to Quicken and some progress reports on the installation itself.

After the installation is complete, Quicken displays an "installation complete" message.

Click Finish.

Congratulations. You’re nearly done. You’ll need to restart your computer, so verify that the Reboot Now box is checked inside the dialog box that displays the installation complete message. Then click Finish.

You can purchase Quicken from the Internet. And if you do so, you don’t grab the installation program files from a CD but rather you grab them from the Intuit website. If you’re taking this approach, visit the Quicken website, click the Buy Now button, and then follow the onscreen instructions to download the installation program files.

Finishing setup

If you’ve used a previous version of Quicken, the Quicken program might show option buttons to indicate what you want to do next: Open the data file that it finds when installation is complete. (Alternatively, you can indicate that you want to open some other data file.) You’re done. You’re ready to begin Quicken-ing.

The Quicken setup process can usually tell whether you’ve used Quicken before. The setup process knows where the Quicken installation program usually puts the Quicken program and data files, and the installation program will look there. If you’ve used Quicken before but Quicken can’t see this, two possibilities exist:

You may have put the Quicken data file someplace weird. (If that’s the case, with any luck, you remember the weird place where you hid the Quicken data file.)

Maybe you didn’t do anything with the Quicken data file but the data file has somehow gone missing. (If that’s the case, hopefully you backed up the Quicken data file to a CD or to some other disc from which you can restore the data file.)

To finish up the setup when you’ve not used Quicken before, the program displays a friendly welcome message, which asks you to indicate whether you’re a new Quicken user, or want to start over from scratch as if you’re a new user, or have used Quicken before and need to open a file from a previous version of Quicken.

You indicate your Quicken status by selecting the appropriate option button and then clicking the big blue Get Started button. What happens next depends on which button you click.

Already a Quicken user?

If you’ve used Quicken before and select the I’ve Used Quicken Before option, Quicken then displays another Get Started With Quicken 2014 window, which asks whether you want to open a Quicken file located on this computer, restore a Quicken data file you’ve backed up to CD or disc, or start over and create a new data file.

If you indicate that you want to open another Quicken data file located on the computer, Quicken displays a dialog box that asks where that file is. If you indicate that you want to grab a backup copy of the Quicken file, Quicken displays a dialog box that asks where that file is. Presumably, if either of these situations is your case, you’ll know where the data file or backup copy of the data file is.

Are you new to Quicken?

If you indicate that you’re a new Quicken user, Quicken automatically sets up a data file for you (you don’t need to worry about it). Next, Quicken prompts you to register. (You might as well do this. The registration takes only a few minutes. All you do, in a nutshell, is provide your name and address, a bit of information about how you use Quicken, and your e-mail address.)

After the data file is set up, Quicken starts the home page. (See the following figure.) The home page walks you through the steps for setting up Quicken.